Obscure Slasher Week: The New York Ripper

Ah New York.  Grim, gritty and a town that never truly sleeps can produce so much.  This time however it created a maniac hell bent on eliminating attractive women with liberal moral values.   So strap in kids, it’s gonna be a bumpy ride on the FDR.  This is The New York Ripper.

 

Oh, she clearly sat on her car keys.

Spoilers feed on hate!

Italian director Lucio Fulci (Don’t Torture a Duckling, House by the Cemetery, Phenomena and Inferno) brings us an assorted tale of a psychotic roaming around the streets of New York randomly stalking and  killing pretty girls as he please  throughout the city and eluding the watchful eye of NYPD.   Dealing with this nutter butter is Detective Lieutenant Fred Williams (Jack Hedley of For Your Eyes Only, One by One, Remington Steele, Three Kinds of Heat and The Plot to Kill Hitler) , a jaded and burned out cop that’s seen it all.  He is bombarded with potential witnesses, no real physical evidence and threats from the Chief to get this under wraps ASAP or PDQ if you prefer.   Realizing he is out of his league to put himself in this lunatic’s shoes he seeks the aid of a psychoanalyst with a heart of gold, Dr. Paul Davis (Long time Fulci staple Paolo Malco of House by the Cemetery, Escape from the Bronx, The Scorpion with Two Tails, Thunger and Midnight Killer) in the hopes he can gain some insight to this irrational behavior.  Hey maybe afterwards he can explain Romney fans for me too.  

Well this was not a boating accident!

I would like to mention a few comments about the technical aspect of the film before going back into the plot.   This is all shot on Arriflex Technicscope giving the film a letterbox effect but at the same time allows for a better slow pan of still shots.  The bridge shots are more defined, aerial shots are crisper and focus on a single actor looks more defined and at the same allows background to be a loss of detail and looks slightly washed out.  The audio redubbed is synched rather well with the actors frame by frame as this was recorded in Italy. 

I must warn the causal horror flick observer that some of these murder scenes are fairly graphic and exposition after each film goes into lavish detail just how badly the killer diced the girls so being said I was a bit disturbed the murder kept making Donald Duck comments with the same voice in question.  Yes it was very difficult for me to take in the depictions of violence when this loopy is quacking and being nuttier than a fruitcake.  Apparently this is in reference to Don’t Torture a Duckling and I believe a finite number of people got this.  

Death at disgruntled disco...

Fulci once again tries to push the envelope of sadistic violence with the trademark pan up of the look of horror of the victim’s face and the inevitable end reaches conclusion as the victim comes to term with there is no escape.  It’s kind of reminiscent of Last House on the Left minus a fricking chicken truck scene and wacky and zany cops.   Oh yes the nudity alone almost an artistic display to it.  Not exactly certain the correlation of erotica meet brutality but hey I leave that up for someone else’s interpretation.    As was with the eye and splintered wood effect of extreme focus from Zombi a.k.a. Flesh Eaters and now has been duplicated more than its fair share of times, which emphasis is carried through to this film as well.     Hardcore Fulci fans you can jot this down as an achievement.